Tuckerization

This page is written from the Real World point of view

Tuckerization is the act of using a person's name or image in an original story as an in-joke. The term is derived from Wilson Tucker, a science fiction writer of the 1940s-80s, who made a practice of using his friends' names for minor characters in his stories. A tuckerization can also be the use of a person's character or personal attributes with a new name as an in-joke. [1]

In Legion publishing history, the names of creative staff, fans, and friends have been used in story since the early days. Tuckerization seems to have gone in waves of use and non-use. Early appearances were mostly the names of creative staff. Tuckerization saw a rise in the early to mid 1970s when writers Jim Shooter and Cary Bates were members of Legion fandom (such as the fanzine Interlac), and then years later in the late 1980s/early 1990s when Tom and Mary Bierbaum, who had also been active in early Legion fandom, became writers. Later, in the mid to late 1990s when the creative staff became active on various online forums (such as Compuserve and Usenet), their interaction with fans there and at conventions led to similar appearances in the comics.

Some examples:

Tuckerization	Appearance	Derived from	references
The element Sigellian	Adventure Comics #267	writer Jerry Siegel
Field Marshall Lorca	Superboy #217	fan Carol Strickland	[2]
The planet Cyrem	Superboy #219	fan Mercy Van Vlack	[3]
The planet Vanvlack		fan Mercy Van Vlack	[4]
A character named Wechsler	Legion v4 #37	fan Elayne Wechsler-Chaput
Legionnaire Magno's real name Dyrk Maggs		writer and radio adapter Dirk Maggs
Science Police officer Tro Yesq	Legionnaires #34	fan Troy McNemar's email address, which included "troyesq"
Saturn Girl's parents Sydne and Bertor	Legionnaires #38	fans Sidne Ward and Robert Dobiesz	[5]
Goldfarb's Asteroid	Legion v4 #78	fan David Goldfarb (for suggesting to writer Mark Waid that the discs on Cosmic Boy's chest could be removed and thrown, as seen in Legionnaires #70)
A character named S'tern R'og	Legion Secret Files #2	writer Roger Stern